CMOS image sensors are rapidly becoming the technology of choice for digital imaging in mobile phones and other digital consumer portable products as they offer advantages in size, power consumption and system cost. ,

Whatever you think about cell phones with embedded cameras, you can be sure that they will be part of the next big wave of cell phones.

However, don't be misled that your multi-megapixel camera will become a paper weight, these camera-phones are more for the quick, fun picture taking. The 640 x 480 VGA resolution won't bog down during transfer and some carriers may even compress the file during transfer, for even quicker times. These carriers are also looking at the camera-phone market as a way to garner extra revenue. What makes this introduction interesting is its CMOS-based design as opposed to the CCD design. Previously, only CCD designs could offer VGA resolution at a reasonable price. The CMOS design is now competitive with the CCD type. The VGA CMOS sensors have increased in sales this year while the CCD sales with the same optical size as the VGA have declined. You may wonder why there is a decline in CCD and increase in CMOS. Partially, it has to do with integration; with CMOS image sensors you can integrate other functions. It's also a power issue since you need more voltage and multiple power supplies for CCDs, and the chip count is much lower for many CMOS designs. The CCD technology also is not compatible with other logic processes so you have to build the image sensor as a stand alone part and then connect to a PLL, DSP, and other parts. The CMOS image sensor uses a standard CMOS logic process which allows you to integrate next to the photo diode array, including the DSP. So you can integrate the logic functions with one piece of silicon for a complete camera. The supply voltage is another aspect that's easier, because it's standard CMOS. You only need one 2.8 V supply line and it's a standard CMOS level